Wind turbine controllers have been deployed in wind turbines for years with the purpose of controlling the overall power output.
The power output from a modern wind turbine can be controlled by means of a control system for regulating the pitch angle of the rotor blades. The rotor rotation speed and power output of the wind turbine can hereby be initially controlled e.g. before a transfer to a utility grid through power converting means. An advantage of this control is a protection of the rotor from rotating at an excessive speed at high wind speeds and save the rotor blades from excessive loads.
Especially for large rotor diameters, the distribution of the wind inflow profile can be non-uniform over the area of the rotor, resulting in a non-uniform load to each rotor blade as a function of one full rotation, as well as asymmetrical out of plane loadings for the drive train of the wind turbine. For a free wind inflow situation the wind shear distribution is approximately linear and the said load as a function of rotation is of nearly sinusoidal behavior with a frequency equal to the rotor rotation frequency. In order to keep a more constant load on the rotor blades, pitch control functions have been applied to wind turbine pitch controllers, where a rotor-cyclic correction with a frequency equal to the rotor rotation has been added to the overall pitch angle setting of the individual rotor blades.
Any obstacles within certain up wind distance of a wind turbine create a wake for the wind turbine and consequently eliminate the free wind inflow situation. An example of an obstacle may be other wind turbines, as a wind turbine always cast a wake in the downwind direction.
Especially in wind parks this fact may significantly influence the inflow on wind turbines situated in the down wind direction. This results in a more complex wind shear distribution than compared to a free wind inflow situation. The said complex wind distribution profile can result in wind turbulence and in turn fluctuating fatigue loads on the wind turbine components. So in order to avoid too much wind turbulence around the turbines, downstream wind turbines are spaced relative far apart resulting in very area consuming wind parks.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and a technique that allows an improved wind turbine control strategy in relation to more complex wind shear distribution.